The Animal Farm (Remember when All Saints released The Beach theme tune and it was all twingy-twangy and magical and made you want to go on holiday, but at the same time it was still dire because it was All Saints and they’re not cool at all? The Beach is exactly what comes to mind as Glide and Swerve’s Bring Back Love opens with ‘Healing Overture’.

As their name suggests, Risqué are an electro-rock duo with a penchant for fetish wear and Pedro Almodovar films.  Other reviews I’ve found are mainly from alternative lifestyle mags like Bearded and Skin Two, hyping the group’s ‘sexy provocation and S&M links’.  So all that remains is for us to discover whether their music deserves a pat on the back or a good hard slap (and whether they’d enjoy it or not).

The title track is a piece of techno burlesque through which singer Nathalie breathily intones the title rather a lot.  It’s slightly kinky electronic decadence in the vein of Goldfrapp or the Kylie’s comeback stuff.  Things continue in this vein through the tracks ‘Push The Button’ and ‘I Want Your Number’, until we get to the first of the many cover versions on this album- Talking Heads’ ‘Psycho Killer’, which is something of a letdown, any attempt at raunch abandoned in favour of a straight cover with synths instead of guitars.  ‘Marilyn’ suffers from a dodgy name checking bit (Madonna, Britney, etc,   are all fakes compared to Marilyn Monroe- dull, as Madonna inadvertently proved that herself years ago) and a cringey Euro-rap middle section.  Things pick up again with ‘Hotline’, which is reminiscent of bands like Daft Punk or Air.  ‘Do You Believe In Heaven?’ has a real Kraftwerk feel to it, and then we get a whiplash-sharp cover of the Velvets’ ‘Venus in Furs’, all synths and whip samples, enlivened further by Nathalie’s vocals making sound a bit Nouvelle Vague meet Depeche Mode.  ‘Plastic Lover’ is too reminiscent of Rogue Traders’ ‘Voodoo Child’ to escape adverse comment.  ‘Superstitious’ goes into Kylie overdrive, before diverting down the euro-house route again with ‘Deshabille-toi’.  ‘Can’t Stop’ is more Kraftwerk.  Things wind up with a cover of ‘Disorder’.  As anyone who’s seen Twenty Four Hour Party People will know, interpreting the music of Joy Division is not something to be approached lightly, but Risqué pull it off with electronic aplomb and cold Teutonic vocals of which Ian Curtis would undoubtedly have approved.

Glitzy, louche, glam and oh-so-decadent, ‘Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down’ had me nodding my head along as I reviewed it, which made typing a bit of a challenge.  Yes, there are some distinctly iffy bits, but this album will fill dancefloors wherever tracks are played, or at least having people tapping their feet, depending how tightly done up their bondage gear is.

Biography

Risqué – French vixen Nathalie and her Welsh husband Huw – combine their lavish soundscapes with a series of incredible collaborations from the likes of dance pop diva Billie Ray Martin and New York City’s legendary transsexual sexbomb and muse of David LaChapelle, Amanda Lepore.